Book Launch: 'Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism'

southern africa | anarchist movement | anarchist communist event Wednesday September 23, 2009 22:59 by Jon - ZACF

The Amandla! Collective (Johannesburg) and the Department of Sociology at Wits University invite you to the next Amandla! Forum

Johannesburg book launch

BLACK FLAME:

The revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism

Lucien van der Walt & Michael Schmidt

Black Flame examines the anti-authoritarian class politics of the anarchist/syndicalist movement, and its 150 years of popular struggle on five continents.

An indispensible conceptual and historical roadmap, with close attention to Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, looking at its:

· Opposition to hierarchy, capitalism and the state
· Strategy: building revolutionary counter-power
· History: labour, community, anti-imperialism
· Agenda: participatory, cooperative economics
· Revolutions: Mexico, Spain, Ukraine, Korea
· Revival: today’s struggles

Reviewers say:

* “... deeply impressive ... a very important and much-needed work… " (Mark Leier, Simon Fraser University, author of Bakunin: the creative passion)
* " ... fascinating, revealing and often startling ..." (Alan Lipman, anti-apartheid militant and exile, author of On the Outside Looking In: colliding with apartheid and other authorities)
* "... useful and insightful ... a grand work of synthesis ... an excellent starting point …" (Greg Hall, Western Illinois University, author of Harvest Wobblies: the Industrial Workers of the World and agricultural laborers in the American West, 1905–1930)
* "Brilliant ... outstanding ... Do yourself a favour and buy it now!" (Iain McKay, author of The Anarchist FAQ, volume 1)
* " ... considerable scholarship and deep reflection ... a remarkable job ... powerful and lucidly written ..." (Jon Hyslop, University of the Witwatersrand, author of The Notorious Syndicalist: JT Bain, a Scottish rebel in colonial South Africa)
* " ... an outstanding contribution ... unique in examining anarchism from a worldwide perspective instead of only … a west European angle ..." (Wayne Price, author of The Abolition of the State: anarchist and Marxist perspectives)
* " ... a must for everybody interested in nonauthoritarian social movements ... " (Bert Altena, Rotterdam University, author of Piet Honig, Herinneringen van een Rotterdamse revolutionair)
* " ... well-thought out and nuanced study of the intellectual, political, and social history of anarchism…" (Steven Hirsch, University of Pittsburgh, contributing editor, Handbook of Latin American Studies)
* “… a welcome antidote to Eurocentric accounts ... We can't wait for volume 2!" - Red Emma's Bookstore Coffee House, Baltimore

Michael Schmidt is a Johannesburg-based investigative journalist/ journalism trainer and activist, with experience in Chiapas, civil war Guatemala, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Darfur, and Lebanon.

Lucien van der Walt teaches at Wits. Winner of the 2008 international Labor History dissertation prize, his extensive publications include the co-edited Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1880-1940 (Brill 2010).

MORE INFO:

http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/black-flame-the-revolutionary-class-politics-of-anarchism-and-syndicalism-%E2%80%94-book-excerpt/

http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/wp-content/themes/AK_PRESS_theme/images/blackflame_onesheet.pdf